Sayeeda Warsi: UK policy on radicalisation 'has been flawed for years'Speaking at Hay festival, Conservative peer says government is too focused on ideology as the sole cause of radicalisation

The British government's decision making when it comes to catching homegrown radicals has been flawed for years, according to Sayeeda Warsi, who has said Britain "cannot afford to have sloppy, lazy, ideologically driven decision making" on national security.

Speaking at Hay literary festival on Monday, Lady Warsi – the Conservative peer and first Muslim in a British cabinet – said government policy was currently too focused on ideology as the sole cause of radicalisation, and not on other factors, including upbringing and drug and gang culture.

"We say it is all ideology," she told the audience. "Ideology is a part of it, but it is not all ideology. And the concern that I have in terms of government decision making is if we're genuinely wanting to deal with this – which we are – then we have to go back to seeing what the evidence says ...